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DB: Harry Simpson, he’s like you, isn’t he? His radio programme up in the north there, the
Saltburn, the blues programme. Harry Simpson has been on at me to go across to play in England
as well. I don’t know I think once you count the ferry in and you count all your expenses and taken
your van across and driving about.
BiTS: I can understand that. It must be a lot of hassle.
DB: Yes, basically I can get in my motor here and I can drive right down to Barcelona in ten hours
and it would take me ten hours to get across the channel to the south of England.
BiTS: One other British musician, of course, who is in France is Paul Cowley. Do you know him?
DB: Yes, I’ve met Paul a number of times. We played the same festival actually in August. Blues au
Château, a place called La Chèze. It’s not very far from Loudéac in the centre of Brittany. That was
the last time I saw Paul. I’ve been bumping into him quite a number of times. He’s got some nice
music out as well, actually. I quite like his last album that he put out.
BiTS: Well, like you, he’s got his own studio. It must be par for the course when people go to
France to get your own studio [chuckles].
DB: The thing is, it’s not beyond anybody these days, is it, do you know what I mean? All you need
is basically just an interface, and you can record straight onto your computer. There’s all these free
programmes as well.
BiTS: That’s certainly true.
DB: Anybody can do it. I’ve gone a bit further than that with the stuff that we’ve got here. I’m
sure Paul has as well at his end because you want to get something that’s going to be a reasonable
quality. It’s a learning curve as well, isn’t it? It’s never going to be as good as a professional studio,
but you’ve got the self-satisfaction, I suppose, the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve done it all
yourselves. If people then compliment you on the sound that you’re getting, well, it’s worth it then,
isn’t it? People like yourselves that give us airtime as well, I mean it’s just wonderful. Made that up
here in the middle of Brittany and you’re listening to the radio and you’re going that’s Ian
McKenzie’s programme - hey listen, that’s me [chuckling]! We recorded it up the stairs. It’s a great
feeling. Like I say, it’s never going to be the highest quality recording that you can get, but I don’t
know, everybody’s got their MP3 players, and as soon as anything goes to MP3, it loses a lot of
quality anyway.
BiTS: Okay, Dik. Thank you very much indeed for talking to me. I hope everything goes well for
you and even though you’ve not been here for 20 years, I’m sure we’ll all look forward to you
visiting us in the UK sometime.
DB: Great, Ian. Thanks very much indeed. Thanks for your call.
BiTS: Thank you very much indeed.
DB: Cheers. Bye.
BiTS: Bye.